Friday, June 29, 2012

Natural Yeast Spelt Bread; Update

I met Caleb Warnock a couple months ago at Vita Health food store in Bountiful. It was a chapter meeting of the Salt Lake Weston A. Price Foundation. Caleb was the guest speaker. He is an urban farmer in Alpine, Utah and has written a book called "The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency". He is from pioneer stock and remembers both set of grandparents doing "serious" gardening and canning. He grew up taking for granted the bounty preserved by his grandparents not realizing that with his parents generation, those skills would soon be forgotten as life-style changes took root in my generation. He talked about farming and seed preserving and canning and I was most interested. Fermenting is part of those kinds of skills that I am trying to cultivate and learn myself.
My attention really picked up when he asked how many of us made some sort of sourdough bread. Half the attendees raised hands, me included. Then he asked if our bread was sour and again most of nodded , yes. He then boldly declared that he has a natural yeast that does not make bread taste sour. I was immediately interested. My husband will not eat my sourdough bread....he says he will when he has to and there is nothing else. I was excited because if I could master the art of a natural rising bread without the sour taste, I would have a winner in my household.

I have successfully made a "sourdough" bread with his yeast that has very little sour taste and my husband will eat it! This bread is also moister and has great texture. The benefits of natural yeast bread are; 1. with a long soak which is in the raising time, the phytic acid is neutralized. Phytic acid is natural to all seeds, nuts and grains....it is a plant defense that inhibits animals from eating the seeds. When eating grains,nuts and seeds we need to work around this natural defense because when phytic acid is consumed, it binds the minerals in the seeds so that we cannot access them. 2. the long raising helps to start the break-down process of the starches of the grain, from complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates or sugars which is easier for our systems to digest....takes the "pressure" off our pancreas, 3. the natural yeasts need time to help deconstruct the starches and the proteins or lectins like gluten, again making grain more digestible. By weakening the gluten, we get an easier protein to digest but a more delicate structure to the bread. Natural yeast will raise bread but not to the standard "fluffiness" of the bread industry with it's synthetic yeasts which came to market in 1984 says Caleb Warnock. Quick rise, synthetic yeasts do none of the work in bread making that natural yeast does.

So, if you are interested also in his "natural yeast" email him and ask for some grains. There will be a fee.
calebwarnock@yahoo.com

Mr. Warnock claims that a lot of the gastrointestinal problems people are having today from bread, is because of the switch from natural yeast to synthetic. I would add that wheat has been hybridized many times within the last 70 years and that hybridization increased the crop yields and increased the proteins, which made everyone happy especially 3rd world countries. However, those super proteins in wheat are not as easily digested as the proteins or lectins from the heritage or ancient wheats, like spelt and kamut and others. Synthetic yeast in commercial and home baked bread, combined with super lectins that can't be digested and we have some serious "gut" and health problems in our population with a very basic food. Also add over-use of wheat starch by the food industry in many common prepared foods and you can begin to appreciate why the "staff of life" has become a poison for many, many people

The most important thing I learned from Caleb's new baking book is....to feed the starter often; twice aweek minimum! This is the mistake I made with my sourdough starter and many other newbies make. I would feed my starter maybe once every 2 weeks and I didn't pour off the "black water" gathered at the top of the starter, I mixed it in. He says don't do that, ( makes it too sour). He suggests getting into the habit of feeding your starter twice a week a whole month before even trying to bake bread. I have selected Wed and Sat. to feed my starter. The excess dough this produces can be frozen, thrown away or made into quick pancakes or muffins but not bread....not yet....not until the starter is sufficiently light and bubbly. I keep my starter in fridge between feedings and when it is healthy, it only sits on my counter a couple hours after feeding and then it goes into fridge very bubbly to cool down and slow down. Before baking bread, take starter out of cold storage and warm it up and feed it and let it get active again in a couple hours then measure out 1 cup for bread.

Baking Day (or night before and let raise during sleep)

In the morning, measure out flour and water, salt, honey, and fat and stir down starter before measuring out 1 cup of it and mix all together. Cover with a damp towel and set in a warm out-of-the-way place for 6 hours. This is important time for natural yeast to do it's work. If yeast is healthy and very alive, the dough will have doubled. Clear, clean and wet a working surface. Yes, WET! another important thing I learned from Caleb's book.....use water not flour to work or knead the dough. Wet your hands and keep small bowl of water close. It's messy, but the moist bread results is well worth changing habits. Work or knead bread for 8-10 minutes. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes while you wash hands and grease the pans for baking. My recipe will make one large loaf but I make 4 small ones. I do not eat very much bread so I can freeze 3 and keep one out. Cut the dough with a serrated knife if making 2, 3, or 4 loaves. Shape bread and place in greased pans. Pat a little more water or spray water on the top and allow to raise another 2 hours.
Bake at 350 degrees 25 minutes for little loaves maybe 40-50 minutes for 1 large. Mr. Warnock suggests inserting food thermometer into loaf to the bottom to get a reading of at least 180 degrees when done or a hollow sound when thumped. Allow bread to cool completely before slicing. The steam will continue cooking the inside of bread.

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About Me

I have a bachelor's and Master's degrees in art. I am a retired art teacher with 30 years in public schools in Ohio and Utah. I have painted dozens of painting selling about half of them. My favorite subject matter? Still lifes; fruit, vegetables and objects of the kitchen.I use them symbolically. I am also a "healthnut" believing that the best medicine is the right kinds of food/fuel. Combining art and food is a natural for me.